Jan 17 2013:
I am sure that if I started to think about all the things that I've ever done, I'd find lots of unnecessary arguments, rudeness from my side, overreactions, maybe poorly handled important conversations... and maybe I COULD find that one moment that I really want to change... Of course there are people I don't like, who don't like me, harsh words that hurt me, actions that made me sad, depressed.
But then this one thought comes to my mind - Would changing this or that really make me a better person? Would I have met all these fantastic people? Seen these places?

What I mean is, that if we more or less are content in the life we lead, I am not sure it's worth it. We may loose more than we can gain...
And maybe by asking ourselves these kind of questions we somehow try to ignore the fact that all we need is to learn from our mistakes, reach inside and find the will to ask "HOW can I..." in stead of "What IF I..." :)

Jan 17 2013:
Now that I'm in my 50's, I would say the one mistake that I made over and over was repressing my own voice. Rather than face confrontation, pain or humiliation, I shut up. I have taught my children to use their voice. Even something as simple as saying "No."

KNOWLEDGE: I know I need to learn from those mistakes and do not make the same on again.

MAKING A LEAP: For me not to make the same mistakes, I would need to let go of my past attachment - to my ego. Transmute habitual emotions. Letting go of my attachment is a great challenge, some small success, so far.

Jan 16 2013:
you should not correct any mistakes that you have made in your past because it make you who you are now and that if you correct it then you would become a different person who would do the same mistake that you just corrected because you have not learned from that mistake.

Jan 16 2013:
Mistakes are kind of misunderstood these days. From schhool to our daily lives most people see the mistakes as something terrible. Yes, a mistake can do damage, we may have to take responsibility for them, but I see the mistakes we do as one of the greatest learning tools. In short - as everybody I did some things wrong, but I'd like to keep them that way together with the lessons I learned.

Jan 17 2013:
I guess love leads to the strongest feelings... mainly love, hate and regret.
So on the question of which 1 mistake to correct.... you'd want to solve the strongest negative feeling right?

Jan 23 2013:
difficult question
I know that I have done so many mistakes and I can't fix them in one chance .
If I would be given a chance to rewrite my past and erase my one mistake
" i should not be depressed that time . I should have think rational not emotional"
because almost every mistake i have done due to being emotional
I tried and trying to abandon but always all my logical decision (which are always right) lose the toss from my heart (don't know enough about it) that is the point where I do mistake or it happens
so final ans is no emotion

Jan 23 2013:
The first thing to do is analyze and truly accept that it was a mistake. Next you need to have the courage to go back and undo or revisit and apologize, whichever is possible. But you have to do this for yourself, and if it will mean anything to you personally in terms of bringing you peace regardless of how the other person or event reacts to this effort.

But the process of undoing a mistake or reconciliation is futile if one hasn’t learnt from a mistake and continues to repeat it.

With regards to my mistake: I would not have apologized or tried to undo a particular event that I was falsely made to believe that it was my mistake.

Jan 23 2013:
Probably the biggest mistake I made was to listen to the voices inside telling me to not settle just yet, I should have been content with my life, but.....looking back at the time didn't seem mistakes, but rather a need to search for and fulfill something that was missing from my life. Unfortunately, I was not aware of it with my head in the sand (to keep it polite ;) .

The hardest thing was to forgive myself, then life goes on and the world does not end. Everyone's makes mistakes, I am happy that the result was not all bad as I came across very important revelations that changed the way I feel about myself and others.

Jan 19 2013:
We learn from our mistakes..n also we dont knw sumtyms tht we are doing mistake and when v realised it was too late to correct it. Mistakes teaches us lesson and make us a better human being. I would choose not to repeat the same mistake.

Jan 19 2013:
I used to say that I should have stop dancing and start school earlier (to make sure I am able to get a "serious" job and real a "real" life). I thought that I wasted so much times going after my dreams, rather than following the masses. Today I realize that because of that dream, I was exposed to much broader education than the one I would have earned by attending school (which I did, just later). I know many great people, I've lived in nine different countries, I studies one of the most difficult arts, and when I stopped I was ready to start something new, and exciting. So, I think the answer is "I would never worry about making a mistake" - even if we do make them, we learn from them so there is no point of worrying.

Jan 18 2013:
I would have risked more, tried more new things, approached things I thought were unapproachable. I missed many things for fear of making a mistake. Now that I am older, I see that making a mistake should have been the least of my worries.

Jan 17 2013:
I have made several mistakes so far and always try to find out what should i had done during that period that may have not resulted in the result that i had faced.but few mistakes are meant to happen and few are committed deliberately.

Jan 17 2013:
personally i'd like to test a few of them out and retain the ability to un-correct the ones that actually turn out worse if i hadn't made the mistake.
we are all quite fallible and sometimes the best thing that can happen to you is to fail miserably. as well as the lesson learned and experience gained, it can save you from going down a path that only ends badly, even if the beginning has glittering prospects.

Jan 17 2013:
For example back in the days of schools (not so secretly) dividing students up in high, low and average groups. I was leaving the sixth grade and was put into the low group in all classes for poor math grades and for 6-years school was little more than a baby setting service. For that reason many dream did not get developed, and also the fact that neither they nor I noticed that I needed classes for far visions.
After a meaningless graduation, I went into a trade school to be a drafter and at that time I had to take a math class. And low and behold I was good and enjoyed math, leading me to the assumption that in the 6 grade I did poorly because I was bored out of my mind!

In school I was told science was only for those who memorized the periodic table, with my poor memory an science carrier seemed out of the question. And guess what during trade school I got the book “Einstein's theory of relativity” and found it easy to understand; wow they were wrong on science also.

One specific dream was to be an artist, and that hit a road block when because of a counselor mistake I had to drop my art classes. Although I must say all the “starving artists commercials” airing on TV at the time was the nail in coffin of that dream.

That is just a sample of me first hand appearances, I could wright a book if included on my dealing with public education. In fairness I have to state that the public school I went to is (and sure was) ranked as one of the lowest in the state. So your results may vary ;)

Now don’t assume I don’t fellow may dream now, but I wonder at times what if?

Jan 18 2013:
thanks i appreciate your sharing your experiences.
there are different kinds of math. it's not really surprising to me that you were good at the math applicable to your trade but that school math was boring. my school had a class called business math that i found boring as heck, but many of the students who stuck with that class did as well as i did in a different math class that was more science oriented. to be honest i think it sounds like you learned a lot from school, you learned that science wasn't for you for one thing! actually it turned out it wasn't for me either, i found the concepts very interesting but all the calculations and memorizations less desirable, and both are necessary to pursue a career in science. i got as far as 2nd year of university pursuing a career in biochemistry before spending enough hours using integrals to solve partial pressure problems for my organic chemistry class that i realized i wasn't suited to that kind of work. it wasn't the teacher's fault, if i was unwilling or unable to do the work then it simply meant that it wasn't for me.

i think that's one of the things people overlook the most in education. sometimes our dreams of what a career holds just aren't accurate, so it's not about teachers crushing our dreams, it's about them enabling us to understand what are dreams and what are fantasies. reality is the probably the biggest crusher of dreams, but then it's also the biggest crusher of delusions, and those important reality checks help us find the path to the thing we can make a living at.

i hope you don't regret following a career in science, because it's actually a lot worse than just remembering the periodic table! it really is a serious whack of figures, calculations and "dangit what's the atomic weight of rubidium again?".